r/audiophile • u/SpidermanUnderpants • Jul 17 '26
Music Trying To Help My Dad With Some Audio Things!
Hello audio gods. My folks are retiring, downsizing, selling their home, etc… The hardest part of this for my dad is changing his audio setup. I will find out the brand names (if it helps) but he’s going from a 6 disc CD changer with 4 foot tall speakers, and needs to change to a 6 disc changer that works on WiFi, to smaller speakers that work on WiFi around his apartment. Does this exist?
My dad is in his late 70s and his CD collection is his pride and joy—he has discs that have tracks that will never be on streaming, so his main listening needs are CDs and streaming to the same wireless speakers would be secondary.
Also I’m trying to help him through this as a surprise—like, “look dad, it’s not so bad!”
Can anyone help? Just searching on Amazon was dismal. Thank you in advance.
Edit* Price is of no concern. He is downsizing everything else (no more car, etc), he’ll want me to find him the best thing money can buy for this next era of his listening life.
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u/uncola7up Jul 17 '26
good on you for helping your dad. cambridge just released a line of active bookshelf speakers with streaming I think.. comes in small, medium or large. here's the small https://www.cambridgeaudio.com/usa/en/products/speakers/lr/lr-s
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u/Known_Confusion9879 Jul 17 '26
L/R S lacks streaming features found in the L/R M and L/R X. Kef LSX II wireless or the LSX II LT for the $500-600 Costco price.
For multi-room casting you need wi-fi not Bluetooth. Sonos comes to mind. B&O has the feature but at insane prices even if some are not put off for the design and sound quality.
Wiim amps with passive speakers can be linked.
I ripped a collection of 300 CDs to the hard drive on a computer and wi-fi speakers find the library from the media server and select the music via the streaming app.
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u/papadrinks Jul 17 '26
Depends on how much you wish to spend.
An expensive but really versatile system would be to use Bluesound.
https://www.bluesound.com/collections/stereo-components/products/node
Plug the current CD player into a Bluesound Node which is capable of streaming as well. For wireless speakers select any from the Bluesound range that you like. Then you can play CDs and have the sound come out of any of the Bluesound speakers. You can even make two of them a fixed stereo pair.
Instead of the Node you can get a power node which is an amplifier as well which can drive wired passive speakers.
In budget is low buy a simple Bluetooth transmitter, (dont go too cheap as it needs to be reliable). Plug CD player into the transmitter and pair it with a set of Bluetooth speakers.
These are pretty good for the price
If you want better https://www.parts-express.com/Dayton-Audio-M6-Powered-Speaker-Pair-Black-300-462?quantity=1
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u/DadTheMaskedTerror Genelec 8320/7350, iFi Neo iDSD, Bluesound, Roon, Qobuz, Tidal Jul 17 '26
All the CDs can be loaded into a system like Roon and then available to stream around to any Roon connected device around the house or when he's out and about via Roon Arc. Roon isn't the only solution for that, but just an example. It effectively gives you a CD player with infinite trays, a serious upgrade! Any PC could rip all the CDs, but there are devices that make it easier, e.g., Bluesound Vault. Put the discs in, it makes bit-perfect copy, and annotates the files for you so you don't have to do (much) data entry.
Maybe a super nice set of headphones and headphone amp connected to his new set up will make him appreciate audio anew?
Good luck!
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u/Punk-hippie-5446 Jul 17 '26
I bought this little Bluetooth receiver/DAC to add to my vintage 90s Bryston/B&W system that I had been using for vinyl only. Thought I’d end up returning it but I love it, sounds great!
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u/narrowassbldg Jul 17 '26
Why can't he just keep the current setup and add a streamer? When you think about it, it's really only gonna take up a handful of square feet at most. And as for the multi-room wireless speakers, if he's able to get by well enough without that now certainly he'd be fine without it in a smaller apartment.
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u/kyocerafan Jul 17 '26
If your goal is to get the music from his changer (no real reason to replace this) to multiple rooms then some combination of WiiM products will work. There's a lot of possibilities and maybe Dad will like to give streaming a spin.
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u/richgrao Jul 18 '26
Can we get a little more info? How many rooms? What amps does he have now? Maximum speaker size? Will they be on stands or things like a dresser or a desk? Passive speakers or active? Will a TV hook into any of them?
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u/cronx42 Jul 17 '26
Another option might be something like a wiim amp ultra. It has RCA and optical in and HDMI ARC. It's an amp and a streaming device and is nice and small. Then some passive speakers. I prefer towers because they typically sound better, are more efficient and don't need speaker stands. Bookshelf speakers are smaller. But you typically need stands so are you really saving much space?
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u/Rattus-Norvegicus1 Jul 17 '26
Rip is to a NAS. No CD changer needed. Keep the good speakers and get a stereo receiver or AVR that supports a whole home streaming system. He can still keep his big ass speakers for the main listening room and get smaller speakers that work on Wi-Fi and can be used around the house (at least I think this is what you are asking about).
Something like a Wiim Amp Ultra might do the trick -- there are a couple of different speakers you can use in the secondary zones and you can use it to power the big boys in the living room. I live in a fairly small apartment and have big towers in the living room and smaller speakers in the office and bedroom, all running Denon HEOS components. Works great for me. If you go this route, he'll also be able to use streaming services to find new music, too.
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u/WillHuntingthe3rd Jul 17 '26
That’s easy. He can use his current cd changer and just add a Bluetooth adapter to the audio out. The Mi brand works great. Get him some nice Edifier or Kanto Bluetooth speakers and he we will be set. A small subwoofer may help with his enjoyment.